BROADVIEW — Approximately 130 residents packed the Broadview Senior Center on Monday night to voice concerns about a proposed data center, in what may be the most people inside that building since the Lions Club chili cook-off of 2009.

The mood was tense. The casserole table was fully stocked. The folding chairs were at capacity.

“They want to put a WHAT in my backyard?” demanded longtime rancher Dottie Prewitt, 74, who arrived at the meeting 45 minutes early to secure a front-row seat and what she described as “a tactical sightline to the microphone.”

The proposed facility, which would house servers for an unnamed tech company, has drawn criticism over concerns about water usage, noise from industrial cooling systems, and what one attendee called “the general concept of computers being near my cows.”

Project representative Todd Ellison attempted to address the crowd’s concerns with a slideshow presentation that included phrases like “economic diversification,” “minimal environmental footprint,” and “cloud infrastructure,” the last of which drew audible confusion.

“He kept saying our data would be ‘in the cloud,’” said retired schoolteacher Merle Hopsworth. “I looked out the window. There were no clouds. It was 8 degrees. I don’t trust any of this.”

Prewitt, who has ranched the same 640 acres since 1978, posed what she called “the only question that matters”: how much water the facility would consume daily. Ellison estimated 300,000 gallons.

The room fell silent for approximately four seconds, which in Broadview is the equivalent of a riot.

“My entire herd drinks maybe 5,000 gallons a day and people already say I’m using too much,” Prewitt said. “You’re telling me a building full of blinking lights needs sixty times that? For what? So someone in Seattle can watch videos faster?”

The senior center’s own water fountain, as if in solidarity, chose that exact moment to stop working.

County Commissioner Ray Lund urged patience, noting that the project is still in the proposal phase and that “no decisions have been made.” He then quietly asked an aide whether the county even has a data center zoning classification, to which the aide responded by staring at the floor.

A follow-up meeting has been scheduled for February, assuming the senior center’s plumbing holds.